Can the reason for widespread hatred and evil in society, such as the hatred toward Jews, be found in the psyche of the individual? If so, can the cure for such evil, or for that matter other social problems, be found in the treatment of individual members of the society, whether perpetrators or victims? Or is such a social illness a product of ideology that is well beyond the mind of the individual, beyond psychological explanation and treatment, and therefore all the more frightening?

These questions lie at the heart of “The Meaning of Life”. The clash between Betty, the patient, and Dr. Frankl, the psychiatrist, as well as the struggles, years before, by Frankl and other prisoners in the Nazi concentration camps, are attempts to come to grips with the real meaning of the forces acting upon our world – then and now.